HOW FAR ARE CHINA AND LATIN AMERICA? (ANALYSIS)

Valleta, March 14- China, one of Europe’s strategic partners, and Latin America, linked to Europe by strong historical, cultural and economic ties, are getting closer. One of Brussels’ goals is to engage Beijing bilaterally and on the world stage through an upgraded political dialogue.

For its part, the EU is a leading investor in Latin America and its second trading partner. The big news in February was Beijing’s interest in realising the strategic plan to build an alternative route across Colombia to compete against the Panama Canal. The blueprint would bring together the two coasts of Latin America. Chinese-Latin American ties shed light on both geopolitics and relations between distant civilisations.

At the beginning of the post-Cold War era, some pundits argued that, considering distance, degrees of development, history and culture, bilateral relations between China and Latin America, each other’s antipodes, could not develop significantly further. In those uncertain days in Beijing, renowned Chinese poet Mang Ke candidly asked me “which kind of people” lived in Latin America and why Spanish and Portuguese were widely spoken in the Americas.

Today it is indisputable that both sides of the Pacific Rim are getting significantly closer. In the last 10 years bilateral trade soared from $10 billion to $100 billion. China is now the first and second trading partner of most of South America, additionally providing strategic investment, progressively displacing the US and important European countries.

Nowadays Latin America highly appreciates principles proclaimed by Beijing, such as non-interference, collaboration, pragmatism, persuasion, strategic patience, multilateralism and multipolarism. Nevertheless, when we analyse China’s political model, we find most of the subcontinent closer to Western values, particularly regarding pluralism and human rights.

Equally as important as the political sphere is intercultural contact when considering both intellectual dialogue and business interaction. Here we find commonalities between China and Latin America, specifically in what Edward T Hall defined as “high context” cultures. There are some striking similarities in a number of issues, including social networks, the family’s role, “face” as a central value and less verbally explicit communication, including the meaningful nuances of key words such as “yes” and “no”.

However, in spite of these parallelisms, the subcontinent still lacks enough specialists in diplomacy and big corporations. In other words, there is a shortage of personnel fluent in Mandarin and dialects, acquainted with local mentalities and social connections at different levels. Appropriate personnel could help in finding new opportunities related to technological ventures complementing the exporting of raw materials. After all, China is becoming one of the leading high-tech powers.

It is true that the subcontinent has nationals of Chinese descent. Nevertheless, several of them are particularly active in small and medium enterprises, keeping a low profile.

On the other hand, Latin American countries appreciate the fact of dealing with the oldest living civilisation which is possibly now the world’s most dynamic country. For its part, the subcontinent is experiencing -with few regressions- new social dynamism. This goes beyond the fact that the region has more democracies than ever before. Indeed, historically neglected social and ethnic groups and more women are reaching positions of high responsibility. Certainly, Latin America has been a region of conflict, but also of multiple negotiations, consensus and multi-ethnic integration.

Maybe the so-called “New World” should be more active in showing China and the “global village” its own versions of the melting pot. After all, the world should remember that, apart from people of native Indian, African, Spanish and Portuguese origin -the bulk of the subcontinent’s 590 million inhabitants- Latin America also includes hundreds of thousands and millions of citizens of Italian, German, Arab, Jewish, Japanese, Chinese and East European descent, among other ethnic groups. Latin America is actually the other melting pot produced in the Americas.

Perhaps Chinese and Latin American intellectuals and decision makers should meet more regularly to exchange on their own historical paths and potential synergies. As for Europe, the cradle of explorations of the antipodes, maybe it is time to be more aware of these developments.

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